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SCIENCE 



[N. S. Vol. XLI. No. 105S 



to this sorrowful rule. It is the utilization 

 of the medical sciences and the behavior 

 of medical men in the war. The results of 

 medical investigations of the last few de- 

 cades and the activities of medical men 

 are of immense practical importance to 

 modern warfare. In some of the former 

 wars perhaps as many soldiers were wiped 

 out in consequence of disease as were 

 killed by the bullet or bayonet. The com- 

 bined modern studies in pathology, bac- 

 teriology, hygiene, surgery, medicine, 

 pharmacology, preparation of antiseptics, 

 etc., have immensely reduced the ravages 

 of war as far as sickness and injuries are 

 concerned. Medical sciences and medical 

 men are part and parcel of wars. But 

 what is their ethical status with reference 

 to strife of nations in comparison with 

 other sciences, with other men of science, 

 men of culture and education? Here is 

 the answer. 



None of the numerous important discov- 

 eries made in the medical sciences was 

 ever used for the destruction of life or 

 harming the enemy in modern civilized 

 warfare. 



Any discovery or invention made in the 

 sciences or the practise of medicine, made 

 in one of the warring countries, is freely 

 given to the medical fraternity of a bellig- 

 erent country — unless it involves a business 

 relation over which medical men have no 

 power. It is illuminating to read a review 

 in an English medical journal of medical 

 reports made at a German medical meet- 

 ing held on a battlefield. 



On the battlefield, on the firing line, per- 

 haps in the midst of a hail of bullets and 

 fragments of shrapnel, physicians and sur- 

 geons, some of them volunteers, pick up 

 wounded soldiers without regard to na- 

 tionality, and treat friend and foe alike. 

 It is practically of no moment to the sick 

 and wounded soldier to which of the hos- 



pitals of the civilized ielligerent nations- 

 he will he taken for treatment. The physi- 

 cian, as a physician, knows no difference 

 between races and nations, between friend 

 and foe. 



And withal physicians in every one of 

 the warring countries are as good patriots, 

 and are as ready to sacrifice their lives in 

 their country's struggle, as any other pa- 

 triotic citizen of his beloved country, with 

 the only difference that he, the physician, 

 is merely ready to die, or to he crippled for 

 life, in the service for his country, hut he 

 is not engaged in killing or harming any 

 one helonging to another nation or coun- 

 try. 



There might be a few exceptions — it would 

 be miraculous indeed if there would be 

 none; any large group has its exceptions. 

 But such few exceptions can not be held 

 up against this wonderful picture which 

 medical men present in war. And won- 

 derful indeed this picture is. We have 

 seen how low international morals are at 

 all times; we see how infamously bad it is 

 at the time of war and especially at the 

 present ferocious war of cultured nations. 

 And in the midst of this inferno we per- 

 ceive a group of sciences which are in 

 intimate contact with life and with war, 

 and which nevertheless never contribute 

 to the degradation of interracial and inter- 

 national morality. "We perceive, further- 

 more, in every belligerent nation among 

 the combatants a group of patriotic men, 

 brave and ready for every self-sacrifice, 

 who do nothing but render help to those 

 who need it, who render it as members of 

 their particular country, but render it to 

 foe and friend alike. Here are representa- 

 tives of humanity, as a whole, here is a 

 most encouraging example of an elevated 

 international morality. 



This wonderful fact is not my discov- 

 ery; it is a fact well established, and "well 



